Printer companies may do their best to fleece their customers, but they do so with some remarkably versatile and affordable hardware.

Two weeks ago, you may recall, I groused about how they exaggerate in their specs and soak you on cables and consumables. But let's take another look at the three new products that provided the grist for that rant: the Samsung ML- 1430 laser printer and two inkjet-based multifunction or "all-in-one" devices, the Hewlett-Packard PSC 2210 and Lexmark's PrinTrio, a.k.a. the X75.

I stand by my complaints about how they're marketed, yet each in its own way is an impressive value.

I already made the case for the ML-1430: crisp, clean text output for just pennies a page, after an upfront cost that's only a bit higher than a decent inkjet -- $200. Another advantage: It works with just about any modern computer -- Windows 95 and later, Mac OS 8.0 and up, even Linux. If all you want is good-quality, no-frills black text, I recommend it highly -- I liked it so much I bought one for myself and another for my daughter in college.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

I'll confess (in case you hadn't guessed) that I'm something of a laser bigot, but there's a lot to be said for the two all-in-one (AIO) printers. For students or anyone else looking to cram a lot of capability into a small space,

devices like these can't be beat: For just $50 or $100 more than a comparable inkjet printer, you also get a scanner, a copy machine and, in higher-end AIOs like the HP PSC 2210, a fax machine, all in one compact unit.

Products of this genre have been around for a decade or so, but until recently they were confined to a small niche -- mostly people whose offices simply didn't have the space for separate devices to handle each task. For everyone else, the multifunction devices entailed too many compromises -- they did a lot of things, but none very well.

But without much fanfare things have gradually changed, and customers have responded -- big time. In the first quarter of this year, according to a recent Gartner Dataquest report, U.S. sales of AIO peripherals soared 98 percent compared to the year before, while sales of plain inkjet printers fell by 5.8 percent. Last year, about 20 percent of HP printers were AIOs; this year, the final figure is likely to be in the mid 30s, according to John Solomon, the company's printer category manager.

At $150 Lexmark's PrinTrio is about as inexpensive as AIOs get, and by the standards of this category, it sticks to the basics. At heart it's a typical consumer inkjet printer, and its footprint isn't much bigger than that, but plunked on top is a small flatbed scanner.

Lexmark's well-organized software provides basic image-editing tools (cropping, rotating, adjusting brightness and contrast, etc.). If you want to turn printed text into editable electronic form, an OCR program called Abbyy FineReader 5.0 (an import from Russia) does a pretty good job as long as the layout of the page is simple. If not, disentangling the results isn't worth the trouble. (Same goes for every other OCR software I've tried, including Readiris Pro, the Belgian app HP provides.)

While the PrinTrio has no fax machine built in, it comes with fax- management software, and you can use it for both input and output in conjunction with the fax modem on your computer. The scanner also functions as a copier, and unlike most dedicated copy machines, it gives you a choice between black-and-white and color copies.

There's a catch, though: The copy function (as well as the fax features) works only when your computer is connected and powered on. That's not a problem if you're using it with a desktop computer you leave on all the time, but it's definitely a drawback for notebook users -- and for those of us who adhere to the old-fashioned notion that idle machines ought to be shut down.

The PrinTrio is definitely not intended for professional graphics -- I was a little disappointed with the quality of the images I scanned (though I confess I didn't take the time to master all the settings and editing options available), and pictures printed with the device's four-color print technology are not in the same league as what you get from six-color photo printers.

On the whole, though, I was impressed with the PrinTrio, especially considering its price. It works with both PCs (Windows 98 or later) and Macs (if your OS is up-to-date -- only Mac OS 9.2.2 and 10.1.5 are supported, according to the Lexmark Web site). It requires a USB cable, which, you'll recall, is not included.

AND AT THE HIGH END . . .

HP's PSC 2210 is at the other end of the consumer AIO spectrum: At $400, it costs more than twice as much as the PrinTrio, but for your money, you'll get some nifty extras.

One is the built-in fax modem, which means the device is a complete replacement for a stand-alone fax machine -- it can even do color faxing, if there's a color device at the other end. In addition, the 2210's copy capability works independently -- you can use it even when your computer is powered down or completely disconnected.

Another option the PrinTrio lacks: If you remove the 2210's black-ink cartridge and replace it with a special cartridge -- not included in the box but yours for another $25 -- you end up with a six-color system, which produces much better output from scanned images or digital photos.

If you go a step further and combine the special cartridge with special paper -- HP Premium Plus photo paper, which costs $22 for 60 glossy 4-by-6- inch sheets or $15 for 20 8.5-by-11-inch matte pages -- you can produce prints that rival what you get from a photofinisher. I printed some of my own distinctly amateurish digital photos, and I was frankly astonished at how good they looked.

And if HP is telling the truth, they'll last longer than I will: The company says these images should keep their color for 73 years.

Like Lexmark, HP also provides easy-to-use software for managing the device,

editing scanned images, etc. I just wish the master program, called HP Photo and Imaging Director, didn't flash a big blue HP splash screen in your face every time you choose one of its options.

All of those features are also available in a sibling model called the PSC 2110, which costs $250. What distinguishes the 2210, aside from a slight difference in nominal print speed, are two features: slots for printing directly from memory cards (CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Secure Digital or Memory Stick) and an option to print a "proof sheet" from the card.

In addition to thumbnails of all the images on your card, the proof sheet included bubbles you can ink in to select images you want printed full-size, plus other bubbles that control printer settings. Once you've made your selections, you scan the sheet, and out come the prints you "ordered" -- you don't have to touch your computer or even have it connected.

When I first heard about this possibility, I pooh-poohed it -- after all, it's not hard to bring your images into a PC, and you'll probably want to do that eventually anyway. But the Saturday after my 2210 test unit arrived, I filled a card with pictures of an art installation my daughter had created that morning in a Berkeley park. I was in a hurry to see how they'd look on paper, so I popped in my card and tried the proof-sheet routine. In just a few minutes I had a couple of pages of good-quality thumbnails, and after a bit of quick bubbling, my prints were on the way.

MAKING CHOICES

That felt pretty cool, but I'm not sure it was $150 cool -- as between the 2210 and the 2110, I'd settle for the latter if I were buying one.

On the other hand, the advantages of both HP units compared to the PrinTrio -- the stand-alone fax and copying capabilities, and the option to turn the device into a high-quality photo printer just by relacing a cartridge -- did feel worth $100.

Bottom line: If I were shopping today, I'd go for the model I didn't actually try -- the HP PSC 2110. In fact, if I had it to do over, I just might get one for my daughter, instead of the Samsung laser printer.

Both the PSC 2210 and the 2110 work with PCs running Windows 98 or later or with Macs running Mac OS 9.0 or later, including X. Both require a USB cable, which is not included

One final consideration: Even if I had more than a few weeks to review products, there's no real way for any individual to assess their durability over the long term, nor the quality of service and support provided by the vendors.

So I took a look at PC Magazine's 15th annual reader survey on service and reliability, which ranks leading vendors in each product category on the basis of reports from thousands of users (www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,334485,00.asp).

Lexmark entered the multifunction market only last year, so there weren't enough responses for it to be rated in that category, but HP got a straight A. (Of the other two companies included, Xerox got a C and Canon a D.)

In its overall printer rankings, which combine responses from the inkjet, laser and multifunction categories, PC Mag gave HP an A+, followed closely by Epson with an A. Lexmark pulled only a D+.